Honor Thyself

I believe we are entirely responsible for our own well-being, and all illness can be healed. It’ easier said than done though. We all have dis-eases. But, they’re not these incurable misfortunes beyond our control. In fact, often times, we cause them ourselves. A dis-ease, at least what I believe is a disease, is when we are in literally, in a state of dis-ease, be it emotional, spiritual, or physical. But the thing about dis-eases that many people don’t realize is, they’re only as permanent as we allow them to be. Often times we look elsewhere, beyond just within ourselves, to find a cure. We may look to doctors, therapies, or others to be cured. However, we must realize that there is a difference between healing and curing. No doctor can mend your spirit, your emotional well-being, without you being an active participant. It is by no means a passive process to heal, and it each of our personal responsibilities when it comes to our health. There can be many causes of dis-ease, usually being something that weakens the spirit, then ultimately causing it to take a physical toll on our bodies. The weaker the spirit, the more serious the dis-ease. But once you heal yourself, dis-ease disappears, and you are left with a message from your learning experience, making you better off than you were before. One of the first examples I can think of happened when my mom was diagnosed with cancer. I was three years old, and my mom had gone through a lot of emotional trauma in a short period f time. Her parents had gone through a recent divorce, her mother had just landed herself in the hospital for drug abuse, and she was miserable in her job at the law firm. The doctors told my mom she might not make it through the cancer, which instantly got her thinking. She thought about all the things that were important in her life, and rather than looking at everything as things that were defeating her, she simplified her views and only thought of the things most important. She was able to truly forgive her parents, and unselfishly respect and try to understand their decisions. She decided that when (not if, when), she overcame her cancer, she would quit the law firm because it was draining her positive energy. She would instead replenish her positive energy by staying at home with her children. A day later she was healed. No chemo necessary.

A more recent example involved my best friend from home, Emily. For the first three years I had known her, Emily was struggling with an eating disorder and poor self image. She had no positive feelings about herself, and it was manifesting itself in such a way that her body was being destroyed, ultimately by low self worth. After years of pain, therapy, emergency room visits, clinics, homes, nothing seemed like it was going to work. She lost all of her friends, including me for a good month or two, and she drove her boyfriend away. The last time I visited her in the hospital, she weighed 85 pounds. Her teeth were yellow and her hair would fall out in big chunks. But then, she began to focus internally on her energy. She began to look into who she really was, and started to honor herself. She started doing what she loved most, yoga, writing films, and she found her niche. Finally, she came out. She came out to us, and she came out to her parents, and she found a beautiful girlfriend who made her happy. She started eating and exercising. And it wasn’t’ doctors and the therapists; it wasn’t us or her parents. It was all because of her. And only she could have healed herself. And that’s what creating positive energy is all about. It’s first believing that you have the power to alter your life, and then acting on it. Never look to another person to make you happy. Go with the flow of change, and embrace it. Live what you believe, believe what you live, and as long as you stay true to yourself, everything will be just fine.

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This week’s essay

Growing up in the former Yugoslavia, lawyer Djenita Pasic enjoyed the peace of her religiously diverse country. But after the fall of communism and the outbreak of the Bosnian War, Pasic was forced to reevaluate her ideas about religion and tolerance. Click here to read her essay.